I had a great almost 2 year vacation out of it and it was GREAT to spend the extra time with the kids and have the time to properly move Kim and I to the South West without the extra hassles of having to coordinate a job too. But I'm done with the leisure time thingy and in the process I discovered a few things about myself. Interesting and weird to do that at my age.
First, I'm not built for honey-do lists, and the wife found that out really quick too. To her credit, she didn't push it. When we got married one of the deals we made was that we would never try to change the other. That has kept us together over 30 years now so she has no problem getting someone else to do the "man stuff" around the house. My big job (spelled O-N-L-Y) is taking out the garbage, and half the time I screw that up too.
Second, I get bored easily. And I'm not built for golf, meaningless cocktail parties, stupid game nights, "group travel" and all the other nonsense retired people do and non-retired ones dream about. Actually I sold my boat and my golf clubs before we left NC, they never got used anyway. So pretty much right after I "retired" I started taking on work related "projects" for folks/companies I know so I stayed in the loop of developments and kept my network alive. It was nice working with no deadlines, but even that got old quick. I swiftly filled my time with outdoor adventures off-roading and shooting while discovering my new patch of the country. But even that can only hold my attention so far and while my wife and friends enjoy doing it with me apparently an-off road 3-5 hours ride through rough country to get to a place with no noise and no other humans is not everyones cup of tea, so though to find folks to do this with.
And last, crazy enough, it seems I actually like what I do for a living. God only knows a few times in the past it didn't feel that way.
So in any case, started having conversations with my old outfit a few months ago and they started getting more serious right around Christmas. My old business partners South of the border wanted me back too so they started making it clear to my company that it would be "beneficial" to their relationship if I was back managing the show. And just like that, I'm back to my old job, which funny enough one of my colleagues had taken on and he's now more than happy to give right back to me
I just got my new work iPhone and laptop will be here tomorrow and I'm as exited as I was at 5 years old the day before my first day of class, with new notebooks, share pencils and a shinny new lunchbox. I start again on Monday.
Funny how life works...